I'm totally convinced that language is primarily spoken and secondarily written. But should language learning always start from speaking? My answer would be: it depends!

Do all contexts where English is used require L2 learners to be orally proficient? in some academic contexts reading and writing are more urgent than speaking and listening (specially locally).

In my humble opinion, a serious language teaching program should enphasize spoken language with the aid of written language.

There are hundreds of methods which give strong enphasis only on spoken language.That's the case of the direct method, for instance, where teachers are not supposed to put learners in contact with reading or writing at all, at least in the beginning of the process. As far as I'm concerned, this way of teaching is somewhat fragile.